TRANSCRIPT

Aaron Cordovez:

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the econ leaders podcast. I have a very special guest with me today  a co host and also basically podcaster: huge podcaster in the Amazon space actually with the Amazon seller round table. If you put Roudtable together doesn’t show up. I searched and I couln’t find it with Roundtable, but  separate. But anyway, oh, co host of the Amazon seller on table and founder of amazing at home coaching consulting course all these different things I have today with me, Amy Wees. Welcome to the show!

Amy Wees:

Thank you for having me, Aaron. Awesome to be here.

Aaron Cordovez:

Yes. Great to have you!. You’re so upbeat. I feel like as soon as we got on the call, I’m just like wow, this is a person who can talk who can say what’s on the mind has a bunch to say no so much stuff. I mean, I’m impressed. Like, in a couple of seconds. We’re talking like war planners. Literally war like literally war planner, frickin consulting, hacker coder frickin like, will find anything on your phone, anything you thought you’ve deleted anything on the internet that if you if Google had it ever, you’ll be able to find it. So anyway, it’s kind of interesting. Just in a couple of seconds that we’ve been talking about all the different things that you do.

Amy Wees:

Thank you. Yeah,  I don’t usually advertise that since, you know, I don’t want people to be intimidated by that. I mean, but it’s a good thing, that there are good hackers in the world, you know, people that, that understand how to do all those things, because there are also bad hackers. You know, the good hackers, you know, people like me who have some of those certifications and stuff for my former career. I don’t do that anymore. But so I don’t really practice that stuff anymore. But I learned a lot from it. But you know, the, the the good people are really good to have around, and kind of help really protect America’s infrastructure. You think of our banks, you know, everything like that software wasn’t really created with security in mind. Nor was the web really created with security in mind. So it’s really good to have that. And it’s funny on the Amazon side, you know, since I’ve been doing Amazon consulting, I’ve run into many cases of people like just giving their passwords, you don’t have to hack it if you give them your password. it’s so important. You know, I’ve seen people lose entire, I think one guy, he was he ordered pictures off of Fiverr. And, and there was it’s very easy to embed malware and stuff into pictures. And so he downloaded the pictures, I’m guessing. And, and then before he knew it, probably a keylogger on his system. And before he knew it, he was locked out of his own Amazon account, the person x, took his inventory out of his account and sent it off somewhere and also cleared out his whole account. So he lost like over $40,000 and there was not like the only thing that he realized was that he was locked out of it. He tried to call Amazon tried to do something. And it was just it was too late. And then there was nothing he could do you know, so the only thing he could track it back to was those images he bought on Fiverr and yeah, I mean images you know, from the digital forensic side of things you wouldn’t believe how much data that can be hidden inside of images and and also glean from images you know, all the images you take on your phone, and they all have location data in there. So you know, don’t you know don’t it but it would be easy to frame someone for it. So anyway, we’re getting so dark, they’re starting this conversation.

Aaron Cordovez:

It is like you said the white hat is also so important, because I’ll tell you what, I’m in Clearwater, Florida and there’s a company here who I believe the first unicorn so billion dollar valuation in Clearwater all of their water is a separate entity from cold no before and all they do is train staff on it. Because we’re staffed by the people who normally will give away all your stuff by accident accidentally so it was a super I mean, it’s like such a huge industry because we do need to protect it just like you need to do the same thing to protect your Amazon Amazon accounts right? We signed up we using century kit but when we got to send your kid it was like it was a lifesaver because before you know I wouldn’t notice and like I have to see like my sales and like that our the sales were were so crashed and I realized that was something that had happened. There was send your kid I get alerts. So say Okay, last five bucks, loss, whatever. And now we have somebody handling that. That was a huge piece. It’s the fence the fence is important, always right. And as you get more things and more valuable and you have a brand and you have things your defense is more important than ever.

Amy Wees:

Yeah, you know, you see people, definitely hiring companies like red points for intellectual property defense. You know, that was something as an inventor you I invented a product. And that was something, you know, you think when you come up with an idea for a unique product that you think might have some merit? The first thing that comes to mind is okay, I have to patent it, or, you know, how do I protect it. And people falsely believe that a patent is going to protect them, the patent itself doesn’t protect them, the patent and the patent itself gives them the ability to litigate. But that also costs money, right. So I completely agree, as you grow, and you grow and become more valuable, you really need to be thinking about not only brand defense in terms of advertising, making sure that you know that real estate on the page is so important. We see all of these brands taking the time. And you know, I know you guys are familiar with this with Samurai seller, but taking the time to really make sure any of their variations are taking up those ads inside the product pages. And then we see them doing brand defense with companies like red points, which will reach out to anyone who even claims to use that trademark or a trademark close to it so that they’re really protecting the space inside of their category.

Aaron Cordovez:

Do you use Red Point?

Amy Wees:

I do not

Aaron Cordovez:

They’ve reached out to me before and I was like, Hey, we got this on the control, like, forget about it, but it’s okay. I’m just wondering, you know, you brought him up? And yeah, definitely are our digital. They’re like digital. Yeah. 

Amy Wees:

As far as I know, I had a few clients who have used them before. And I have been reached out to because I used to do. I used to do like wholesale and retail arbitrage on Amazon. I’ve been on Amazon since 2007. I’ve been there for a little while, you know, I’ve tried a lot of different business models and just had fun with Amazon. Right. But when I was doing reselling, I had you know, somebody from bread points reach out, and it was for a brand that I was selling, right, that came from retail. And you know, a lot of the bigger brands that are in retail do a lot of the brand defense. And so, you know, companies like red points will send out, you know, letters to kind of warn you, hey, you’re not authorized to sell this, this brand. You know, that kind of stuff. So that’s how I got familiar with it.

Aaron Cordovez:

Ok. Good! And can you explain what was a product you made? Is that public information? And how did? How did you do that?

Amy Wees:

Well, yeah, you can you can Google it. Me. I’m sure. You know, and figure that out. It’s it’s, I came from, came, it came from an idea because I have three cats. And the biggest problems with cats is what? What do you think the biggest problem with cats is? Aaron

Aaron Cordovez:

Do you have cats? For me? I’ll tell you because it’s allergies. I’m so allergic to cats. I don’t want to give my face. So that’s my, that’s my biggest problem is having them around. 

Amy Wees:

There’s so many people that have allergy issues. And so my product actually helps with allergies as well. Because a lot of the allergens are caused. It’s funny, the guy who helped me kind of prototype and build my product. Was it definitely allergic to cats. So he would come over, we built the 3d printer together, and, and he would come over and like bring the prototypes over. And we would try it with the actual litter boxes. So my product is a litter box cleaner. So it just makes it very easy to clean the litter box, you just pick the litter box up, you pour it in, and it separates the waste from the clean litter and it has like a little holding bin below and, and then you just dump up all the nasty at one time. So you’re not like in there scooping for treasures, you know, it’s just gross, right? But um, but the thing is, whenever you mess with that litter, you know, you screw up the litter, there’s a lot of allergens and hair and everything that comes out of that. And there was this, there was this girl at my gym, she just got a new cat and she was like she was taking these pills or whatever to she’s a little bit allergic and she really wanted a cat and, and she was taking the pills and everything. And she was still having such a hard time. She was keeping the cat in her bedroom, everything like that. And she was like, you know, I just I’m still having such a hard time with my allergies. And I said, well, let’s go litterbox in the bedroom. And she’s like, yeah, it is I was like, get it out of there. Whoa, and get it out there and because a lot of people have like attached bathrooms and stuff, right? So you know, a lot of people keep litter boxes in their bathroom or in their laundry room. Well anyway, I told her get it out of there and it’s gonna get rid of you know, all of those extra allergens. Every time the guy uses it. It really just stirs things up. So anyway, it’s kind of gross to think but I make some money from dealing with cat poop.

Aaron Cordovez:

Right? How many did you sell? How many have nothing to do so?

Amy Wees:

Oh my gosh. 1000s now Yeah, So and we are expanding into retail this year, we’ve already sold in a few different retailers, we got a purchase order from Walmart recently. So, so we’re working on, you know, really expanding my goal by the end of 2021 is to be firmly established in one major big box retailer. And then my goal in 2022, is to sell it, I’d like to sell it and play again, in a different category. Not that I don’t love pets, I have, you know, lots of products in the pet side of things. But, but yeah, it’s just a lot of fun, right to create different things. And but yeah, so that’s kind of the story. I mean, I, I have a business background other than my military background, I went to school for business, I used to be an executive at Target. You know, before I joined the military, I worked in retail, and in the restaurant world, so, you know, it wasn’t, it wasn’t foreign to me. But even though I went to business school, and I have an MBA and all that kind of fun stuff. I had this idea for a product and I was like, Okay, I know, I can launch them on Amazon. I’ve been selling on Amazon for fun, you know, but how in the heck do I take this idea, this ugly prototype that I went to Home Depot and build? You know, how do I take that and like, turn it into something real? You know, turn it into an actual product? How do I find a supplier for that? How do I make molds? How do I do all of that?

Aaron Cordovez:

This is like 2007. This is like, right, when you started. You’ve have been selling on Amazon for a long time.

Amy Wees:

This is 2017, and yes heah, okay. But just as a hobby, though, not like, I mean, I had a question, I have had a really good job, everything like that. So it was just as a hobby. Like I started, when I was in college, I started flipping textbooks on Amazon. Okay, so that I saw that little sell yours here button. And then you know, that just changed things. So I just started flipping like everything in my house, you know, I was like, Oh, I don’t use these CDs anymore. Let’s sell them on Amazon. And I’m using this you know, and then I would like go to thrift stores and find things So, and then we were stationed in Hawaii with the military. So I stopped doing it because back then it was like merchant fulfilled. So I just took a break for a couple of years. And then I came back here died, we moved, we retired from the military, we moved to San Antonio in 2014. And I started a job in cyber security with the Air Force. And, and that in 2017, is when I came up with this product idea. So I hadn’t been selling on Amazon for a few years in that took a little break in between there. And was really busy with the cybersecurity stuff and with kind of growing the career ladder thing. And it came up with this idea and I get migraines, really bad migraines, and they’re triggered by smells. So for me, I didn’t want to have to get rid of my pets, that wasn’t acceptable to me. And I’ve tried every kind of litter box, I tried every kind of scoop I’ve tried every kind of litter and nothing worked. And so we were cleaning the litter boxes twice a day, it was just roast, you know, when nothing was working. So I was like, you know, there has to be a better way, like, there, we haven’t innovated. Think about like, either whether you have a dog or a cat, we are still like manually cleaning up the duty. Like, come on, we have not innovated on that in so long. So I’m like, you know, there just has to be a better way. 

Aaron Cordovez:

How about Cyber litterbox? That someday it just disappears and goes to another dimension. That will be the ultimate invention.

Amy Wees:

I know, right? What do not have to do it at all to just make it disappear. That will be great. I don’t know that I’m I’m that good. But you know, it’s a cool idea. So yeah, that’s that’s kind of where it came from. But it was really a journey from from going from flipping existing products on Amazon to starting your own brand. It’s really something different, right? It’s really, you know, you have to treat it like a business you really, you know, and, and for me, I started like reaching out to all these design companies and stuff like the inventhelp ‘s and stuff and, and, you know, I tried out for shark tank and, and I thought that that was like the path, right? But what I was hearing from these design companies and stuff is like, Okay, well, we can take your drawings here. And, and you know, for about $30,000 we’ll turn them into like a CAD drawing. Yeah. Oh, my. Yeah. And I was like, Um, no, Business businesses out here bringing new products to market all the time, there has to be a better way. And so I started just like cold calling manufacturers like, Hi, I have an idea. And you just talk to manufacturers like.

Aaron Cordovez: 

Were those US manufacturers? 

Amy Wees: 

Yeah and my product is made, that product is made in the US. The rest of my products are made in China, but But yeah, I started just reaching out to them, and some of them would be like.

Aaron Cordovez: 

Oh, yeah, you need it is a plastic manufacturer. Yeah. Okay, so you just call them they answered your phone?

Amy Wees: 

I’m very straightforward and professionally, so I just started calling and saying, Hi, you know, I’m getting to know people and just saying, Hey, you know, I have this idea of this prototype, do you have any resources that, you know, I could reach out to, and I learned about product designers, I learned about all kinds of things. And I just started kind of going on this journey to create an end, while I was doing that I was sharing, you know, sharing on Facebook, I had a little Facebook group, just like 100 people, and I don’t even know where those 100 people came from initially. And I started just sharing my journey. I was like, Hey, you know, you guys have an idea for something. This is what I’ve kind of learned. And, and yeah, my husband and I just kind of went on this journey. And now both of us work from home full time. And and we get to do this between our consulting business and and we get to help other entrepreneurs do the same. And, and then, you know, grow our private label brand and have won the cat people at the same time.

Aaron Cordovez:

That’s amazing. Oh, that’s so cool. And so how long did it take you to, you know, I guess, replace your income? And do that transition? Right? You? You did the product, I’m assuming you patented it. And then you just you eventually succeeded with a US manufacturer got it produced? And then what was that run? What did that runway look like to? I guess the financial freedom from?

Amy Wees: 

Yeah, so first, the first, we we launched a bunch of other products to like, at the same time. Because I, I didn’t want it was taking me a long time, you know, I had to have molds made and all this other stuff. And so while I was doing that was studying all this stuff, and learning more about private label. And we went to some training by daymond. JOHN, the Shark Tank guy, right? And we learned about FBA like that that opportunity was being presented there. And remember, when I started on Amazon was mostly like merchant fulfilled. FBA wasn’t like a big thing. And so I had that little break in there. And so we learn about that. And then we started…

Aaron Cordovez:

Daymond John was pitching an FBA course?

Amy Wees: 

Well he had like a team that probably paid to use his name, you know. So like, we went to a hotel here in San Antonio for like a weekend seminar. And they did a lot of stuff on mindset, a lot of stuff on finance, a lot of stuff. And then at the end, they talked about the FBA opportunity, as part of that he…

Aaron Cordovez:

But Daymond John wasn’t there. Right?

Amy Wees:

They used his picture and his name and all that to get you in the door, right. But I don’t regret it at all. I mean, that was actually a game changer for us. We learned how to from that seminar, that weekend long seminar, we learn how to get funding for our business, we got 0% interest financing $160,000, within a week, that alone, those were, what they had, they had resources. So we found out about this funding company, basically, that if you had good credit, you could get access to funds, depending on your credit. And both him and I had great credit. So we utilize that.

Aaron Cordovez:

Do you have pension or to just do business or to what?

Amy Wees:

Well, I had a business plan at that time, right? Because you know, I have background, my my degrees are on business. So of course I have my business plan, surrounded by my product, and you know, a whole brand that I was going to build out. So I knew how much money I was going to need. I knew my molds were very expensive, you know, five figures were my mold costs. So there was a lot of startup expenses. I had website expenses, trademark expenses, patent expenses, all that kind of stuff. So I knew I needed funding, and I made a lot of money at my job. But you know, eah, so I when learning about this from you know, that seminar, it was really cool. Because we came home, we got all that additional funding, and then we learned about FBA. And it’s funny because my husband Rasheed his buddy, in the military that he served with, actually was doing like six figures a month retail arbitrage on Amazon. And he was selling like Nike shoes, and my husband loves Nike. And so I told him, I was like, dude, you were deployed with him, like, go spend like a week with him. Go spend a week with him and learn what he does, because he’s must be doing something. Right. Right. So we sent my husband to Colorado to spend time with this friend, and… 

Aaron Cordovez:

What year was that?

Amy Wees:

That was in 2017. Okay, so like this whole thing was happening. We’re coming up with ID and all of that. And so then he came home from that and we started with the FBA knowledge, we use the retail arbitrage model to start just flipping and learning more about this process before just jumping totally into private label right. Then we did some wholesale stuff because I got annoyed trying to replenish inventory from Walmart, right. I didn’t want to play That game, I was like, No, there’s a better way to do this the business way, right? So I started calling up companies, and I got really good at writing listings and making bundles. So I started calling up companies. And I’d be like, Hey, I see that your competitors are kicking your butt on Amazon, this is exactly what I can do to improve that, and your product would fit really well in my store. So I’ll open up a wholesale account with you at the same time. And so I did that I never had any wholesaler tell me? No. They were like, Wow, that’s really great. You don’t like Amazon sellers? And I’m like, Well, I know what I’m doing. So let’s go. But um, so you know, we just we got a lot of really great wholesale accounts. Some we made some buying mistakes, do we still have some old like, dead death pile inventory? You know, I think all of us Amazon sellers do, right.

Aaron Cordovez:

But was it all, pet wholesale stuff?

Amy Wees:

yeah, that and then we did some stuff in the home as well. And, you know, so then was this was like the progression, right? So then I started, I found a couple of private label products along that line, that that seemed like good deals, I saw opportunities in the market, all of that. And I was like, you know, I’m going to, I’m going to launch these other three products at the same time. And so I did, I invested in three other products, I found manufacturers on Alibaba, right. And just, you know, I didn’t know back then before I added China trip and all this stuff, I had no idea the difference between a factory or trading company, or all these things, like, all these things happen for a reason, it was this wonderful progression of learning about all these different categories and listings. And, you know, and that’s what made me really good copywriter. That’s actually how amazing at home ended up being born. Because I was copywriting. At first I was hiring people on Fiverr to write my listings. Yeah. And then with my background, you know, I was like, you know, kind of hack this, I was like, Okay, I can see these keywords. And this, this isn’t working. And then at the same time, Andy, I were starting to talk and I was learning a lot more even more about SEO from him. And I was working with his beta tool, and it’s still the best for writing listings. His tool is incredible. It’s like a secret weapon for organic ranking. So you know, I was using a few. Yeah, he has a listing tool in there called listing lightning, and it’s so good.

Aaron Cordovez:

Were you using Guru now for that? Which I know, you said you use guru as well. Not for writing listings, right?

Amy Wees:

No, I use his tool. He just so good. I’ve written so So anyway, I started, you know, I would have some wholesale buys that would sell, you know, cuz I was buying from some bigger wholesalers. So I figured out I was like, you know, I could definitely do a better job at this listing optimization thing. And I speak native English, you know, because some of the stuff I was reading on Fiverr was coming back, you know, whatever. And I would still have to like wordsmith it. And so I started writing these listings. And I would be able to, I would just switch the category, or call it something else, or find a keyword opportunity, or create a bundle and call it something or create a multipack, whatever it was. And I realized that listing optimization is literally like, one of the most fundamental skills you have to have, it’s going to affect your PPC, it’s going to affect everything else that you do. And if you know how to do that, well, that’s one of the best Amazon hacks you can have. So I learned how to do it really well. And I was like, You know what, I’m going to put a service on Fiverr. So I put a service of me writing listings or whatever.

Aaron Cordovez:

Oh yeah! Ok! 

Amy Wees:

People come to me with impossible products, like felt letterboard stuff that had like, 50 pages on Amazon, you know, and you’re like, dude, you’re not gonna sell this. And this one guy came to me, I’ll never forget. And he was like, Well, my felt linerboard is pink. And I was like, dude, nobody’s looking for a pink felt letter board. Like, that’s not a keyword that I can wipe needs. It’s not gonna sell man. And so I was like, just hang on, let me think about this. And so I went and did the research. And I was like, Alright, this is the perfect baby shower sign. This is the perfect office sign. So I started thinking about other keywords that this could be listed on her. Well, all the felt letter board, people were using filler board. And so I was like, Hey, I’m just gonna rewrite this listing. And this is a receptionist sign. That’s what this is. And we wrote the whole listing for that. He did his photos for that, and he sold out. And so word spread. And before I knew it, I had all these people coming to me, and I was like, Oh, okay. And then people were like, how did you do that? I want to consult with you. How do I set a meeting up with you to like, talk with you? And I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t have a way to do that. So I built literally built my amazing at home website. I had the domain name because I was gonna do like a vlog on YouTube about people. doing cool things at home. So I bought the domain name. And I was like, You know what, I’ll just use this domain name. I had no idea that we were going to become top three consultant in the world or, you know, whatever. And now the logo that you see today is not the logo I started with, you know, this one was designed by people who have worked on movies and stuff. But, uh, but yeah, it was really a, it was just such a crazy thing. So now, you know, I have a listing optimization masterclass, and I really help people focus on what is it that you’re selling? And what is it that the customer is going to connect with you on? And if you haven’t really saturated product? Is there another keyword opportunity that you’re completely missing? That you know, and a lot of times, you’re not going to find that on software? You have to get in the mind of the customer and go, what else is it called? Because if you just reverse search your competitors, you’re gonna find the same keywords everybody else is using. So you have to get in the mind of the customer, you have to do a little bit of outside research, and you have to go Okay, what else could this be used for? And in some cases, you’re not going to be able to find anything, right? Yeah, if it’s an iPhone case, it’s an iPhone.

Aaron Cordovez:

It is like a case to hold the cat litter, you know what I mean?. There’s so much power in that one piece of that is to it also helps tremendously in your ads, because not only do you then go somewhere, but you also can advertise on those things. And sometimes very obscure keywords do convert nicely, we’ve seen that like many times.

Amy Wees:

And as you mentioned, Aaron, it really affects your PPC placement. Because PPC placement, the very first factor is relevancy. And if you are not relevant for that keyword, and you bid on it, in most cases, unless you’re doing like a product targeting campaign, your placement is going to suck, you’re going to be in no man’s land. And it no matter if you have a really high bid, because you’re in competition with all of these other bids that are more relevant. So it’s it’s really important that you understand the link between the keywords in your listing, and how that affects your advertising. I was on a call with a client the other day, and she was asking me Should I continue with this product. And we looked, and she could have been on page one for her main keyword. But she just didn’t have she was on page three for her main keyword. And I looked at her listing and the order that she had the phrases for that main keyword. First of all, she didn’t have that phrase intact, big mistake. And it wasn’t in her title. It wasn’t like repeated in her first bullet point. And another there wasn’t a lot of like related phrases to it. And so I told her, I said, Okay, the one the product on page one for this, that your product is better than is literally doing like four times the sales of you, you’re on page three, that’s why you’re not getting sales, your ads aren’t even showing up before page three. And it’s because you don’t have those relevant things in your listing. So should you continue with this continue with this product? Yes, look at all the potential that you have. If you can just fix your placement and your keywords. Then suddenly, I had another client in the UK and he had several product lines. He was a big he was a big seller in retail. So he had sold millions in retail. And he comes to me and and we look at his product lines. He had four different product lines. And he was coming to me to actually decide how to hire a new ads team because he had an ads team. And so I work with like a lot of service based businesses, I help people kind of fix their businesses. And so he comes to me and he’s like, Amy, I really want to know, like, how do I hire a better ads team, like my ads team isn’t really performing. And so we took a look at his listings. And sure enough, he had so much potential he was he had Amazon’s choice badges for stuff. Nobody searches. I was like, we got to get rid of these Amazon’s choice badges and we’re going for some new ones. Right? So I was like, Don’t fire you’re asking me and I took a look at his PPC PPC look great. He was bidding on all the right keywords. But those keywords were not in his listing. And so we redid his, we optimize his listings, one line at one product line at a time. And of course, his ads started popping up on page one, his product, we’re now on page one, and tripled his sales with the first slide in less than a month. Wow, less than a month. And then I was like, dude, your ads team is great. Like you see your ads all over page one now. Like that’s what happens when you optimize your listing. Right? And so we did that. Yeah. And then we just we continued that process through the rest of his lines and his sales have gone like five times what they were before and he’s dominating page one. So the next step is brand defense, right? Because he has all these variations. So the next step is like, you wouldn’t believe how many people are not using Brand Registry ads.

Aaron Cordovez:

Right.

Amy Wees:

Do you see that Aaron?

Aaron Cordovez:

Run ads like headline?

Amy Wees: 

like any to any of the type of you know, ads that are available to register brands, I guess you could say it that way. But you know, so much real estate is available to you that you might not be using. But the bottom line is, if you have a broken Foundation, if your listing doesn’t have the right keywords in it, you’re really not thinking customer centric. And you’re not thinking about Where’s your placement, you can spend all the money you want on ads, and it’s not going to matter.

Aaron Cordovez:

Yep. And I tell it to people all the time, I’m like, Hey, your main image, your listing, having a video, these things will change your ads dramatically. And so I really appreciate you doing that for the seller. Again, I don’t know them, but I’m sure they’re extremely happy with you. And I’m sure you’re charging absolutely nothing in like it’s not like a percentage of the lift. It’s like boom, a one time call a couple times call. And you have this huge thing. And so in your coaching, do you actually then write the listing? Or you have the class or like, what is what do?

Amy Wees:

I’m also a copywriter, so I love writing listings. So people do order listings for me. But it’s always up to the client. So sometimes in this case, the client wanted to learn because it’s such a fundamental skill. So I have my listing optimization masterclass is literally it’s like you could start your own agency get through, because not only do we cover, yeah, not only do we cover like we cover, how to find your main keyword, we cover how to write compelling copy that actually explains a differentiation that matters to the customer. And then we cover how to design seven photos that convert based on those that listing to give you five bullet template that converts like crazy. And then we teach you how to add SEO to your writing. So it’s not just keyword stuff, it looks great. We teach you how to write a great title, how to get organically on page one, you know, I’ve rewritten listings from hundreds of sellers that have gotten listings professionally written by agencies, right, and I’ve rewritten those listings and put them on page one.

Aaron Cordovez:

How much is it a word of the word of someone sign up if they want that? Or if we want to try that? Where do we go to get that service?

Amy Wees:

Oh, just at Amazingathome.com, come check us out!

Aaron Cordovez:

Perfect. Yeah, in the show notes as well. And people definitely need help with the listings. And I’ll tell you, we’ve we’ve tried many, not many, I’ve tried a couple of agencies on different things. And we have also various software’s and we’ve done internal teams, we had Philippines teams have had us, we’ve had so many different things. I mean, look, bottom line, for me, I think the product is the most important thing. Yeah, kind of, if your product is really good, it’s almost like your listing. If it’s, you know, kind of good, you’re, you’ll be fine. If your product name is everybody else’s product and you have nothing special, your listing better be like, absolutely freakin

Amy Wees:

Top notch, right?

Aaron Cordovez:

We like to focus on product, but obviously, the listing and I’ve seen them the images. For me, the main image is absolute number one driver, but what have you seen, like the main image? Is you agree with that? Or what do you think converts or helps people buy the most on on a listing?

Amy Wees:

So main image is important, right? But the big thing over the copy is the images that follow after they click. So they’re going to click, if you’ve got an ad at the top of the page, they’re going to click, the question is are they going to convert? And the only answer to whether they’re going to convert, and this is the big thing, the big problem that I see that people make with their photos, and this is why we include a seven photo strategy. And I’m happy to walk through those photos. Um, so the thing is, a lot of people, they don’t think about the sales process when they’re creating their listing or their photo layouts. So a customer comes to your listing, they’re not reading it, they’re not reading it, they’re flipping through those photos, they’re not seeing your EBC yet your A plus content, whatever we’re calling it now. They’re not seeing that they’re going through those photos at the top of your page. Yes. And if those photos do not answer the questions that they have, how big is it? what’s included with it? Why should I care and buy this and not another product? How can I trust you that this is quality? is there other uses for it? Can I see it in my life, if you’re not covering those things, they’re not going to convert? They’re going to move on? And what I see so many times is people will just have like a bunch of pictures of just like features or they’ll have a bunch of infographics with a ton of text. You got to use icons, because people look at the icon and then they read the text underneath that icon because it’s just like a brain thing, right? So we always do them in this order. We do main photo. The second photo always shows why you should buy this product and not a competing product, your strongest selling point. Yep, second photo. The third photo is always what’s included.

Aaron Cordovez:

So we get the second one backup the second one, and maybe it’s in your course. But are you gonna do like a comparison image right away? Like, hey, the competitors have this, we have this or it’s, for example, my RS is the biggest in the market. And you you don’t talk about the competitors, or guess it’s case by case.

Amy Wees:

Case by case, right? So the whole reason that one of our 10 classes is just defining your USP is for that reason, because you really want if you’re selling this water bottle, right, if you’re selling this, right, and I know those listening can’t hear it, but it’s a pretty plain boring water bottle.

Aaron Cordovez:

Yeah, it’s definitely

Amy Wees:

This water bottle is gonna be $5 for it at the five and below store, right? But it’s perfectly if I’m selling this water bottle, it’s same as everybody else’s water bottle, right. So the thing is, all I have to do is create doubt in the customer’s mind about other water bottles, I have to focus on what the customer cares about. So in this case, this is a double, double walled water bottle, it’s going to keep my water cold, right? It has a straw has this really great sealable lid. So all I have to do is focus on one feature that leads to a benefit that they really, really care about, and do a better job than my competitors of explaining that, like, our water bottle is specially designed, like the thickness of the walls is specially designed to keep your water colder longer. And our straw is made of a material that is so easy, easy to clean over other popular materials on the market, something like that, right.

Aaron Cordovez:

So sometimes, you’ll put the picture that comes like a comparison image like ours versus theirs, which is Yeah, you put that right away in the second image.

Amy Wees:

Well, only if I wouldn’t necessarily do a comparison photo. As the second image. What I’m saying is, whatever you choose to be your strongest selling point then you have to show that in a photo. So the reason that we always cause bullet point one for us in our listing is always your USP. So you write that out, and then you have a photo that represents it. bullet point two is always what’s included, because that’s how the customers mind work, the customer goes, why should I care? Like it? And then they go, Wait, what do I get? And so immediately, not only are you taking them through that process in your photos, but you’re also taking them through that process, your listing. So you know, you write the listing first, why should I care what’s included. And then the third bullet point, and the next photo in the series is always your risk free, guaranteed or quality guarantee. So you want to show them that you care about them. You’re a legitimate brand. And you’re not going to say oh, we have a 30 day return policy. Why? Because that’s gonna fail at day 31. No, this is the absolute best quality and we care about our customers show that in a photo. 

Aaron Cordovez:

Do you put down a third image?

Amy Wees:

Yeah, third image after the photo, right. So get the main photo. And then the third image. Yep. So that’s always the third. The fourth is multiple uses. So people want to see it in their life. Right? So let’s say you know you have a, something that would work for indoors, outdoors, whatever, right? a quad photo is really good. But you want to show them you want to explain like this lamp here will work for you. No, it’s a great line.

Aaron Cordovez:

It works outside, it works for inside, it works for office, it works for warehousing, and it works for a nightlight. And it also works by the way to make a ghost with a little blanket.

Amy Wees:

Exactly fun. And you’re showing them and because if you’re only focused on the features and benefits of the light itself, and you’re not helping them imagine it, they go, Oh my god, I need two of them. I want one for my nightstand and I want another one for my office, you know, you’re you’re helping them or if they hadn’t really thought about that. suddenly they’re like, Oh my gosh, my dad, he needs this for his desk. I didn’t even think about that. Right. So that’s always bullet point number four. And that next image in the lineup, and I love doing you know that there right as far as like doing like a quad photo showing all the different uses. Or you could always do a how to use. So let’s say it’s a very, you know, like, for me, my my litterbox cleaner, like it’s not really like there’s not really multiple uses. You use it to clean the litter box, right? So I’m showing a how to use four easy steps, you know, pour dump, return the litter the clean box and get on with your day, like that’s what I’m showing in that bullet point number four in that photo, how easy it is to use and how great you know you’re simplifying the process for them and because that’s going to be one of their questions, write the last bullet point and the second to last one I love to show it as a gift. And this is the big thing about keywords that people mistake. So many copywriters say it’s a great gift for birthday, Christmas, Halloween, New Year’s, nobody’s searching for great gift for birthday, Christmas, Halloween, New Year’s.

So yeah, you’re not going to rank for anything, nor is your PPC going to do well, if you try to rank for that gifting keyword. So, you need to do the gifting keyword research, you need to make sure you write a whole bullet point for that. And then you need to represent that in a photo. If it’s the best baby shower gift, you better represent that in a photo, right? 

Aaron Cordovez:

And there, you’re talking about like a have a baby shower thing at the top. And then a mom, you know, she’s pregnant and she’s receiving the gift and she’s super happy that kind of represent is literally get an atmosphere of the gift.

Amy Wees:

Yes, exactly, exactly. And now, if you don’t, if you’re selling headlights, and you don’t have a giftable product, then you want to show your authority in the space. Okay, so you know, show all the different vehicles that works on show, you know, if you’re showing if you’re, if you’re selling iPhone cases will then show you know, something about, you know, your authority in the space.

This is a good place for the comparison, right? Just to answer any final objections, you know, hey, you know, ours has this extra dip to keep your iPhone from falling out of it or whatever, right. But this could be a really good opportunity for supplements, I’ve helped a lot of supplements brands, you know, what they’re, so it’s a great place to either, you know, explain the the ingredients or explain their story, like I had a guy who created his own supplement line based on the fact that he had a certain disease and was able to actually cure himself. And that’s very powerful, you know, so to have a picture of that, and like help the customer Connect instead of in the supplement industry where everybody feels like, I don’t know, it’s snake oil, right? It’s really important, right? So that’s it. And then I always do one final lifestyle photo just to kind of get it in their life, right. And one, one additional bonus photo. And when we do photos, we also have a photography team and amazing at home. And when we do photos, we follow that that methodology. And so a man just really, really converts well. So that’s our five bullet points and our photos. So hopefully you guys took a lot from that and and it’ll help you improve your listings. The folks that have done our listing optimization masterclass when just changing out their photos with that sales process in mind. They hadn’t even updated their listings, conversions increased immediately.

Aaron Cordovez:

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. And then could you maybe talk about out of the people in your class, or ones that you’ve optimized? What are like the top selling products, you know, maybe a product, you’re selling 50 units a day you did it? Boom, I got up to 500 units a day or like, sub 100 BSR in sports are like what are like some of the top representations or top setters that you’ve represented?

Amy Wees:

Oh my gosh, I have products in every category. Like I can literally scroll through Amazon and see every every category like sometimes several on a page.

I mean, just while I was I’m rewriting my listing optimization masterclass, right now, within my mastermind group, we’re like re teaching it, you know, just updating it because 2021 Amazon’s like messing around with the capitalization and bullet points. They’re like, you’re teaching…

Aaron Cordovez:

Something that we heard rumors? Yeah. The beginning, you will get shut down. And, you know, we saw the help page that actually said, You can’t do that. Yeah, it’s gonna we’re gonna take no chances. We took it. Everything was taken off. And that was, you know, that was like, started I think with DSM. Everybody who’s been doing it since?

Amy Wees:

Yes, it was. It does make it really readable, you know, if it was the best practice.

Aaron Cordovez:

I mean, I think it was helpful. Yeah, but you, you you can you confirm, you’ve seen people get shut down for that

Amy Wees:

I have not personally seen people. I’ve seen one listing get suppressed in the communities that we talked about, but they couldn’t confirm that it was exactly for that. So yeah, but at the same time, then I saw in sorry. Yeah, I saw him as tgd group. Now, what I was telling people is like, Look, we’re in the middle of q4 right now, it’s best not to touch your listings, like to not mess with your listing right now. If you have one of those listings, that’s been good like that forever. Don’t go into your listings right now and mess with it. But if you do have to go into your listing for any reason to edit something, go ahead and fix it then you know, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Some of my listings still have caps in them. Some of my other ones I fixed just based on like, Hey, I’m going into this let me go ahead and fix it at the same time. But you know, I haven’t seen like massive depressions. I haven’t pulled in my groups about it.

Aaron Cordovez:

So it’s a potential threat. You know, you haven’t probably seen any difference when you change it, like conversion rates go down. my buddy jack Did not I didn’t notice anything.

Amy Wees:

No, no problems, because you’re not changing any keywords or anything. You know, it’s when you like change out your title and stuff that you’ve forced to full reindex. And you got to like, start over again. And so I always tell people, if they’re selling really well, like, you know, don’t change out your title. And that’s a big mistake people make they’re constantly changing their listing, it’s like, stop. If you’re selling really good, stop resetting everything, you know, but But yeah, if you’re not selling really good, you got nothing to lose. rewrite that sucker. But, uh, yeah, so I was, but I was just rewriting my optimization masterclass where I was going through a category and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, I’ve written to two products on this page. But I mean, confidential IT company that confidentiality is obviously really important to everybody that I work with them. So you know, their products, whatever. Yeah, in every category, you can imagine whether it’s a storage basket for baby’s room, or a rug or a dog toy, or a we’ve done dog bowls we’ve done. 

Aaron Cordovez:

About like bestsellers, you have like a count of like how many like, either become a bestseller? Or you’ve done best, like number one in the subcategory? You know, I’m assuming you must have worked with several of those.

Amy Wees:

I’m mostly just Amazon’s choice badges. So we get on page one. So we get on page one for that. And then we get a lot of Amazon’s choice badges. Because when you’re the most relevant, that’s how you get those choice badges. So yeah, I mean, I’ve seen people I know like one guy that I’m working with now he’s in supplements. Oh, no, he’s not in supplements. Sorry, that was another one. Um, he is in a men’s health care product. And we just moved him up to number one organic position on page one for his main keyword. And he has 5x two sales and under a month.

Aaron Cordovez:

That’s like, that’s unheard of is that a one a one to one product account, or you’re saying five bucks on just one product account? 

Amy Wees:

And so in, what we did with him is we just optimized his listing, make sure it was good to go. And we did some creative advertising. And then we also ran some Google ads, which Oh, by the way, a lot of people don’t know the power of Google ads, and that it’s extremely powerful at ranking you because 60% of Amazon’s external traffic comes from Google, Google’s super cheap to run ads on like 10 cents a click. And so if you’re not running Google search ads, I’m not talking Google Shopping ads, I’m talking Google search ads, because a lot of people, a lot of it comes from 60% comes from search. And so it’s 51% of Amazon’s traffic, I was doing a traffic class in my mastermind group and 51% of Amazon’s traffic is direct meaning people are going directly to amazon.com. But of the one 100% of external traffic outside of that direct traffic, right? 60% of that is search. So if you are missing, you’re missing out if you’re not running Google ads, and I can’t tell you how many seven and eight figure sellers I’ve met who are like I only do PPC, like.

Amy Wees:

Yep. And so in, what we did with him is we just optimized his listing, make sure it was good to go. And we did some creative advertising. And then we also ran some Google ads, which Oh, by the way, a lot of people don’t know the power of Google ads, and that it’s extremely powerful at ranking you because 60% of Amazon’s external traffic comes from Google, Google’s super cheap to run ads on like 10 cents a click. And so if you’re not running Google search ads, I’m not talking Google Shopping ads, I’m talking Google search ads, because a lot of people, a lot of it comes from 60% comes from search. And so it’s 51% of Amazon’s traffic, I was doing a traffic class in my mastermind group and 51% of Amazon’s traffic is direct meaning people are going directly to amazon.com. But of the one 100% of external traffic outside of that direct traffic, right? 60% of that is search. So if you are missing, you’re missing out if you’re not running Google ads, and I can’t tell you how many seven and eight figure sellers I’ve met who are like I only do PPC.

You know, it’s like he’s huge. You’re doing all this extra work. You know, when you think about like doing all these giveaways and stuff. That’s extra traffic, you’re driving external traffic. And what happens, you know, a lot of people during launch will do all these giveaways, right? And then suddenly, they get dropped down to like page 10. And they’re like, wait, I was just on page one. What do you think you did you pissed off the algorithm because you were sending all this external traffic. And now all of it stopped because you stopped doing giveaways because you’re on page one now. But if you run Google Ads at the same time, there’s no difference. You’re getting diverse, external traffic to your listings. It’s so stinking powerful. And a lot of people don’t like to do it, because it’s hard to track your conversions. If you use the Amazon attribution or anything like that. It’s beta. I wish it was better. But um, yeah, I think nursing goes like coming up with something for attribution. 

Aaron Cordovez:

I, what I used to do, I used to use an Amazon Associates Link, and it worked awesomely. And then would know, and I would know, like, oh, wow, 40% of the people are buying a competitor’s product, but at least they got paid on the link. However, Google or Amazon shut down that link because it’s against the terms of service. So I was not able to continue doing that.

Amy Wees:

And you want to use a two step URL Anyway, when you’re doing Google ads, because it’s going to help you rank for those keywords and stuff.

Aaron Cordovez:

I stay away from I stay away from everything. Any ranking anything, any giveaway, just you know, on my podcast, I wasn’t talking about that. Because Listen, I’ve had people get this year was like 2020. Sorry. 2020 was like the year of warnings. So many people got warnings for review, manipulation, ranking, manipulation and stuff. And I believe some of that comes from these two step URLs. 

Amy Wees:

First, we brought my husband home from his job, he was a teacher. So we brought him home from his job. And he was just working in our private label brand. And he was just managing the day to day. And so we were paying him, we were just reinvesting. And I was making good money at my job, right. And then, and that was in the early 2018, when we brought him home. And then amazing at home grew so fast. So some of the people I was consulting with, they were making big money. And then they were getting up at these summits and stuff like that, and saying, like I made, I made all this money, or they were getting awards or whatever. And they be like, Amy, Amy helped me, you know, and so before I knew it, like, I’ve never done any paid ads for music at home, it just grew organically. And it was just like, insane. So I was literally I would come home from my job. You know, running a cybersecurity team, I would come home from my job, and I would be on calls, five o’clock, six o’clock, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, nine o’clock, and then go to bed at 10 o’clock, get up in the morning, go to the gym, do it all over again, I got to the point where I was turning down people, I was going out to my car on my lunch hour and taking calls. I was like, Oh my god, like I can’t. I was so overwhelmed. And I told my husband, you know, I was overwhelmed. On the weekends, I got to the point where I was like, even if I worked all week long, all weekend long, and took and I was taking time off from work, I would take time off work like two weeks at a time.  But I’m still couldn’t catch up. Yeah, I told my husband, I was like, I can’t I can’t keep this up. Like I can’t be performer at work. I am not good at anything right now, you know, and I had a friend who, um, it was funny, because this is such a pivotal moment, because my husband was having a barbecue with some of his men’s group friends, and they were coming over the house. And I was in this mindset where I was like, You know what, I don’t want to be the good wife, and go outside and like, hang out with these people, because I have work to do. And I’m building something here, right? But anyway, you know, and then they’re not gonna understand me, there’s a nine to five job working people, you know, they’re not going to care. And you know, you’re kind of become the outcast, and you’re like the entrepreneur, right? So I go outside, I’m looking out, I’m just gonna let go that I’m going to be a good way from God time limit, mingle. And so I go outside, and I’m talking to this guy, and there’s two entrepreneurs outside and, and they’re they’re friends of ours from our church.  And I was like, Oh, my gosh, I didn’t know that about you guys. And so they’re like, we should just meet each other. Just once a week, get on zoom, and just chat, you know, and Afton the guy, he was like me, you have to quit your job. On our first meeting together. He was like, you have to quit your job. And I was like, What do you mean? Like, dude, I paid the mortgage on this damn kept Texas castle. I can’t just quit my job, my six figure amazing job, you know, just quit a perfectly good job. And Afton was like, didn’t you just tell me that you were turning down clients? And I was like, Well, yeah, but I can’t. No, I can’t just quit my job. You need to quit your job. And so he helped me kind of figure that out. He helped me navigate that. He was like, Hey, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make sure that we have enough money to pay the bills so that you can just focus on the business full time and you don’t have to worry about paying yourself taking money out of the business because that’s overwhelming when you start. So he’s like, we’re just gonna make sure you have money set aside. We’re gonna make sure you have a plan. And then you’re going to set a date, you’re going to take the leap, and that’s what I did. Like he held my hand through that and I was scared. I was terrified and I took the leap on October 27. 

Aaron Cordovez:

Oh That is my wedding Anniversary!

Amy Wees:

Oh Yeah freedom!

Yeah, so that was when that was when I came home and within three months, I had tripled my previous income.

Aaron Cordovez:

Congrats!!! That’s amazing!

Your own taking the risk and being around other entrepreneurs who are helping you in the right way. Of course, yeah, never good idea to leave your job unless you can cover the bills unless you already have other money. But at some point, it’s becomes a liability. So that’s, that’s amazing. Your buddy is awesome. So glad church buddy. That’s awesome. Um, so yes, we have gone over many things, as you were saying, and I’m keeping you for a long time and I know your time is money. And that is that is the truth. Okay. So, um, any final things you want to say? Again, amazing at home. That is your consulting, coaching. masterclass everything Amy, we you want to learn and become that amazing at writing, copy, making Amazon listings, go check her out, do some consulting. I mean, guys, if you just want to get on a call, so many people want to get on a call, and I’m like, I don’t have time to be on a call. But Amy definitely has time to be in a call.

Amy Wees:

If you need help with your products. If you’re trying if you have an idea for a product, and you’re not sure how to make it happen. If you don’t know how to find suppliers, if you I mean, I do negotiation sessions with my clients, suppliers, like you would not believe this stuff that you know that I can help you with. So if you guys ever need help, and you’re just needing looking for some direction in your business, reach out anytime I do have a free listing optimization, or listing review service. So this is something that’s very popular with people, you go to amazing home.com and go underneath services. And there’s a little thing that says listing review, Amazon listing review, and it’s free. And you just fill out the little form and I personally send you a video of exactly so whether you’re having trouble with your PPC, whatever it is you have low sales, whatever it is, that’s where it all starts. So I love doing that I’m a total nerd about these things. So send it to me, it’s joyous for me, I like it. So send me your listing, let me know what’s going on. And what you’d like me to look at. I’ll give you straight up opinion on your photos, whatever you know your copy your title, your PVC, if you’re like, I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t find my ads. And I you know, I’ll give you a little keyword analysis, whatever. I’ll spend a couple of minutes and I’ll send you a video of me explaining what’s going on with your listing. Happy to do that. I love doing it so!

Aaron Cordovez:

amazing. I love that we should maybe even do one live. I love doing that too. By the way. I have some my youtube channel I have like, analyzing this product and analyzing whatever it’s it is fun. And I’ll do anyway. So that’s an idea. We might do it sometime. Maybe live it’ll be fun. And see where we might have different opinions, you know, or the same opinion. I don’t know.

Amy Wees:

Yeah. I love that. Aaron, thanks so much for having me. That was so much fun!

Aaron Cordovez:

Awesome. Awesome. I agree. Okay, everybody. Thanks so much. And thanks for coming on the show and see you later.